Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability
In 2020, the European Commission published its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. This is part of the European Green Deal, a package of initiatives intended to protect human health and the environment.
It has also had consequences for European chemicals law, with the Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Chemicals (CLP) Regulation ((EC) No 1272/2008) being amended accordingly. The following new hazard classes and categories for substances and mixtures entered into force on 20 April 2023 under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/707:
These new hazard classes are intended to ensure substances and mixtures are labelled appropriately, drawing employees, employers, and consumers’ attention to potential risks. Where substances and mixtures are placed in one of the hazard classes, manufacturers, importers, or downstream users should view this as an incentive to swap them for less dangerous chemicals wherever possible.
The labelling for the new hazard classes does not include equivalent hazard pictograms because the new rules are purely European. The hazard classes provided for in the CLP Regulation are not included in the United Nations’ Globally Harmonised System (UN GHS). In January 2023, a designated UN GHS-level working group began open-ended discussions about whether and how these newly defined hazards could be incorporated into the GHS.
To help the actors concerned adjust to their new obligations, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/707 allows transitional periods for substances and mixtures.
Substances that are placed on the market for the first time as of 1 May 2025 accordingly have to meet the requirements set out in the new rules. Where substances have already been placed on the market before this date, the new rules will have to be complied with as of 1 November 2026.
Mixtures are subject to a longer deferral period, so mixtures that are placed on the market for the first time as of 1 May 2026 have to meet the new obligations, while mixtures that were previously available on the market are to be classified and labelled in accordance with the new rules as of 1 May 2028.
The current version of the ECHA’s Guidance on the Application of the CLP Criteria, which is published in five parts, gives advice on the application of the new classification criteria in Part 3, Health Hazards, and Part 4/5, Environmental Hazards and Additional Hazards.
The “New EU Hazard Classes” poster available online in A1 and A4 formats (in German) offers further information about the new hazard classes.